Nginx UI: MCP nginx_config_add skips config directive validation → authenticated nginx directive injection (RCE on the official image)

Nginx UI is a web user interface for the Nginx web server. Prior to 2.4.1, internal/config/validation.go (ValidateConfigFile) is a security control that blocks dangerous nginx directives — js_*, perl_*, load_module of the njs/perl modules, and user root. It is enforced on three of the four config-write paths: api/config/add.go, api/config/modify.go, and mcp/config/config_modify.go. The fourth path — the MCP tool nginx_config_add (mcp/config/config_add.go) — does NOT call it: it writes the caller-supplied content straight to disk and reloads nginx. An authenticated MCP caller (or an MCP agent induced via prompt injection) can therefore inject exactly the directives the control is meant to block, leading to nginx code execution on deployments where the njs/perl module is available (e.g. the official Docker image). This issue is fixed in version 2.4.1.

Source published

12 Oct 2026 20:59:58 UTC

Source modified

13 Oct 2026 17:50:15 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

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CVSS 3.1 · 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H